02 05 Rise of Mickey, the Idiot
by NewDrWhoFan
Summary: What happened in "Rise of the Cybermen" between arriving in Pete's World and the Doctor deciding to investigate Vitex? Now, you can find out! 10Rose. (Very mild K-plus for mention of suicide.)
1. Not in Kansas Anymore

_So, I was challenged regarding my take on "The Girl in the Fireplace". I can't resist a challenge :)_

 _The argument goes like this: "Given that Rose was ready to leave the Doctor (or at least, the thought did cross her mind) in the Rise of the Cybermen two-parter, I don't believe she would have almost kissed him right before."_

 _I, however, propose that leaving the Doctor never did cross Rose's mind, there; and that it's an erroneous impression left in the memory and reinforced by a mistaken interpretation of the previous episode. So, there._

 _Of course, you, loyal readers, are always free to tell me whether I'm wrong! Dedicated to_ **Vortex2018** _in gratitude for the challenge. Enjoy..._

 _This is a sequel to my stories " **Heart of the TARDIS** " through " **The Girl in the Stalking Spaceship** "._

 _As yet un-beta'd._

 _Disclaimer: Surprise, surprise, I don't own_ Doctor Who _. Nor do I get anything from writing these stories - except wonderful, constructive reviews! Wink, wink; nudge, nudge ;)_

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - Not in Kansas, Anymore**

Thank _God_ the Doctor could sometimes be very, very wrong.

Just one more item added to Rose Tyler's list of _Thoughts I Never Thought I'd Think_.

After all of the self-reassuring Rose had just gone through, seeing herself and Mickey through the Doctor's absence - absences - going after Reinette; after all of the maybes she'd told herself, working out all the reasons the Doctor could - would - make his way back to them, safe, on the TARDIS; that same, beautiful ship, _home_ , had dropped them right out of the Vortex and into nothingness. By all the Doctor's expectations, they were stranded; the TARDIS was (it hurt even to think it) dead; and no help would ever come. No Time Agency, no other Doctors, no one - ever.

Until Mickey, not bothering listening to a word the Doctor said, had opened the TARDIS' doors onto a London street corner!

Relief flooded Rose, with a certainty that somehow, someway, the TARDIS would be healed, and they'd be back to the stars in no time.

* * *

As the trio came back to the TARDIS, away from the animated Vitex sign, Mickey watched as Rose kept her distance and kicked at the grass with her boot.

"I've gotta see to the TARDIS," the Doctor announced. "See if there's any... well, I've gotta see." He was looking at Rose, who hadn't turned towards them. "Keep an eye on her?" he told Mickey, quietly. "No wandering off?"

"Yeah, sure," Mickey told him.

The Doctor looked hard at the back of Rose's head where she'd sat, before disappearing inside the ship.

Mickey stepped over to Rose. "He thinks you're gonna run off?" he said, sitting with her on the curb as he huffed out a laugh. "Isn't he the one that just left us on a droid-infested spaceship?"

"Oh, please, don't start on that," Rose begged with a pleading look, before gazing out over the water. "He had to, he's back, it's done."

"Yeah, well." Mickey fell silent at her side. Rose was in love. It was a lot easier for her than for him to accept the Doctor's excuses.

Mickey saw when Rose turned her head to look back down the way towards parallel-Pete's advert.

"He's right, though," Mickey spoke up, looking between her and the poster. "'S not your real family; they haven't got the real you."

"Don't see what it'd hurt to find out, jus' have a look," Rose answered him. "See what life's like for 'em. Not on a council estate, not likely." She smiled. "Can hardly imagine what Mum'd do without a flat completely packed with drunk neighbors on her birthday," she laughed.

Mickey had been to more than his fair share of those parties, getting pinched, and poked, and hearing all sorts of assessment and advice from Jackie's girlfriends. As much as they generally approved of him over Jimmy Stone, Mickey was never quite up to scratch in their books. What kind of friends would Jackie have, here, with a famous, successful husband? "Livin' all fancy an' whatever," he said to Rose. "What're the chances we'd even know each other, here?"

"Who knows? With the parallels?" She shrugged. "Could be we're next door neighbors," she answered.

Mickey thought about it. The same... but just a little bit different. His Mum? His Dad? His Gran, even? "D'ya think there's a parallel-me?" he asked, aloud.

"Could be, why not?" Rose asked.

"Think there's another Doctor?" he wondered. Another Doctor to snatch away another Rose...

"Ha!" Rose laughed. "Could you imagine that?" she asked, but then quieted, shaking her head. "Don't think so, though. Seems like the kinda thing he'd 've said, if the Time War hadn't reached here." She looked down, silently picking at the blades of grass between them.

Yeah, poor Doctor, last of the Time Lords, again. Always the weight of the universe on his shoulders, knowing what everyone can and can't, should and shouldn't do. Still, "What if we do find 'em?" Mickey asked. "If we run into another us? Is that what the Doctor's on about? Touchin' your doppleganger and rippin' apart space-time?"

"Doubt it," Rose answered, folding her arms over her knees. "If we were back in time, seein' a younger us, yeah; but everythin' here's, like ya said, parallel: its own thing on its own path." She stretched out, then climbed to her feet.

Mickey stood with her. "So," he asked, "you're not gonna wander off an' try an' join the Vitex family?"

"No," she laughed softly, shaking her head. "Jus' wanna stretch my legs." She looked over her shoulder at the TARDIS. "Don't like seein' her like this."

"I'll go," Mickey offered, jerking his thumb back at the ship. "See if the Doctor's got any bright ideas 'bout gettin' us home."

Rose nodded, hooking her thumbs in her pockets as she turned away.

"Rose?" Mickey called out to her before she left.

"Yeah?" she asked, looking back at him.

"If there is another Rose, let 'em keep her," he said. "Whatever you might think, she's not you. You're absolutely un-swappable."

She gave him a genuine smile at that. "Thanks, Mick. You, too," she said, pointing at him. "Lemme know if there's any word?"

"Sure thing," he agreed. He watched as she turned and headed down the walkway - away from parallel-Pete.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	2. To Oz

_Final chapter here, already. This is, after all, just a short little filler to smooth things out between TGitF and AoS._

 _Enjoy!_

 _As yet un-beta'd._

* * *

 **Chapter 2 -To Oz  
**

Rose's brow furrowed as she scanned Peter Tyler's biography. It had all the minutiae of his life, from his "humble" beginnings and marriage to Jackie, to his first major contract and surprise success, to their summer homes across Europe, right down to the number of cars in their garage.

But no Rose. No her.

She tried another search.

 _Peter Tyler Jacqueline Rose baby._

 _Peter Tyler child._

 _Jacqueline Jackie Tyler pregnant._

 _Vitex child daughter Rose Tyler._

Nothing.

"Un-swappable", Mickey had told her.

Try "unnecessary".

* * *

Rose kept a tight grip on her superphone, as she walked. If the Doctor could be wrong about the Void... Silent Realm... stuff, he could be wrong about this. She knew in her gut that he was.

"Rose!" She heard him catching her up, but she didn't slow or turn. "Rose!" he called, reaching her side and matching her pace, hands in his trouser pockets.

Rose zipped her phone away in her jacket, just to be safe.

The Doctor didn't try to take the phone again, but asked, "Why _are_ you doing this, Rose?"

She chewed on her bottom lip, clearly hearing the disapproval in his voice. "I'm not... I'm not changin' anythin' here," she told him, watching the ground ahead of her instead of looking him in the eye. "I learned my lesson with that, I promise. But, we're not in the past; it's not dangerous like that. An'... it's my Dad."

She risked a glance at him, but snapped her eyes away at the look of betrayal she saw there.

"An' I do trust you," she went on. "But I'm not askin' for us to stay so I can make this my life; I jus' need to see 'im. Them." Rose looked up at the zepplin-filled sky as they came to a brief halt at an intersection. "Don't be mad."

"I'm not mad at you, Rose," the Doctor told her, and she turned to find, indeed, a gentler expression on his face. "If I'm mad," he looked around, nodding at their surroundings, "I'm mad at this place, this world." The signal changed, and they continued to walk together. "For pulling us in, for taunting you with these parallel might-have-beens." He huffed out a breath. "Stupid world."

Rose swallowed back the hurt. "Stupid?" she asked. "Jus' 'cause he didn't haveta die, here?"

"What?" The Doctor looked over at her, seeming genuinely surprised. "No, no. Stupid, for not having..." he trailed off, looking around, as they set off with the foot traffic, again. "For making you compare," he finished. Then, he added quietly, "They don't know what they're missing."

Rose felt a small grin make its way to her lips, but it faded as she thought about his words. "But that's it, see. I - I need to know what it's like for them. Are they happy? Do they miss me? Wish they had me? Are they..." she briefly glanced over at the Doctor, "better off without me?"

The Doctor reached for her elbow, pulling her to the side of the walkway. "This is not your world, those are not your parents." He looked her dead in the eye. "You are irreplaceable."

Rose gave his forearm a grateful squeeze where he held her. "Thanks," she told him, quite warmed to hear the same sentiment from both Mickey and the Doctor.

The Doctor let his hand slip away and he gestured for Rose to continue on, before pocketing his hands again and falling in at her side.

"This world," Rose went on, as they turned down the next street, "it just seems so perfect with them together an' successful. An' I don't wanna think it's _because_ I'm missin'."

"Rose -" the Doctor tried to cut in, but she continued.

"You gave me a glimpse of them before, when you took us back, in our universe." She sighed. "I really jus' wanna see what it looks like, to see 'em together, now." She was half hoping to see their _happily ever after_ , and half afraid of what that would mean every time she looked at her own, real Mum (because they _would_ get back, and she _would_ see her again).

Like the Doctor had said, "the might-have-beens".

"Wonder if any of it's the same for Mickey's family," Rose asked aloud, thinking of all the people he missed, that he'd lost.

"What's that like? Who's he got back home?" the Doctor asked.

Rose looked over at him, surprised to hear him, the Doctor, actually asking. "Well, no one, really," she admitted. "Not anymore. It used to be his Gran, his Mum an' Dad, an' his Mum's sister."

"What happened?" the Doctor asked.

"I wasn't old enough to remember," Rose qualified, "but when he was about five, his Mum was drivin' with her sister, an' they wrecked. His Mum was fine, just banged up, but Auntie Becky died in the crash. Mickey's Mum just couldn't cope."

Despite only having heard the story from her Mum, Rose's heart still clenched at the thought of Mickey finding his Mum after the attempted suicide.

"She'd been in hospital ever since. She passed while - durin' the time we missed. Never recognized her visitors. His Dad hung around for a while, but then he just sorta... wandered off," she explained. "He was brought up by his Gran."

The memory of the woman she knew finally brought a smile to Rose's face.

"She was _such_ a great woman," she enthused. "Oh! She used to slap him. But then, s-she died. She tripped and fell down the stairs." Mickey had lost so much, she felt almost guilty missing "just" her Dad. "'S about five years ago, now, I was still in school."

"I never knew," said the Doctor.

"Well, ya never asked," Rose defended. Something of an understatement, she thought. The Doctor was too busy insulting him, getting his name wrong on purpose, calling him "idiot"...

"You never said," he countered.

She really never did.

"That's Mickey," she realized. "I suppose, we jus'..."

He was the one she left for the Doctor. The clingy but faithful boyfriend. The one who'd follow her anywhere - except that he wasn't, anymore.

"Take 'im for granted."

* * *

 _The end._

 _As I said, this tag was written to show how Rose didn't have to_ _still be angry at the Doctor for leaving her behind, in order to walk away. In fact, you could even say that she expected and/or trusted the Doctor to follow; and Mickey's actions (in this episode and in "Age of Steel" to follow) all demonstrate his reaction to their inseparable-ness. If you don't agree, do me a favor and re-watch the eps. ;)  
_

 _Tune in next time for " **02 06 Age of Bronze** "._


End file.
